User blog:BeastMan14/Review: A Quiet Place Is A Solid Horror Debut
A Quiet Place is the third film from John Krasinski, and easily his most ambitious. A sci-fi horror film largely devoid of dialogue and reliant on natural sounds and tension, it had every chance to fail, but instead lands as a mostly solid horror flick with a strong emphasis on family and survival. The Cast The film's cast is largely minimal, consisting of only four major characters: Lee (John Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt), Marcus (Christopher Jupe), and Regan (Millicent Simmonds). As such, the film would likely fail if any one of these performances was weak, making it a nice surprise that each member of the cast is fairly strong. Krasinski and Blunt, as a real-life couple, have a natural chemistry, really selling themselves as both a couple and as parents. Krasinki carries himself with a gruff exterior, with his usage of ASL coming off as to the point, while Blunt is much loving and affectionate in her delivery. Simmonds handles a role that could've been irritating with aplomb, selling adolescent frustration and guilt with a sensitivity. Jupe is probably the weakest link, but it's largely because his character is rarely anything other than frightened in his scenes. Of the four, Krasinski is easily the strongest, using the lack of dialogue to convey so much emotion through body language and facial expressions. Desperate, angry, joyful, he pulls it all off without really trying. Score: 4.5 out of 5 The Script The film handles it's setting, a world ravaged following an invasion by creatures that prey on sound, fairly well, focusing largely on allowing the audience to learn details through things like newspaper clippings or writing in notebooks. The film is fairly tightly-plotted, with set-up elements paying off throughout the film and building towards a satisfying climax, but it struggles like many horror films do with characters making dumb decisions. The biggest victim of this is Lee, the supposedly grizzled survivor, who, in the film's third act, makes a series of inexplicably dumb decisions in rapid succession with no real explanation as to why beyond that the plot needed to progress in this fashion. Where the film truly surprises is selling the relationships between the various family members. These characters feel like a real family, and you want them to survive this tense situation. Several interactions carried real emotional weight, and I actually found myself with a lump in my throat at a few points. Score: 3.5 out of 5 The Direction The film never really pushes the limit in terms of shot designs or framing, but it never feels overly chaotic either. There are several moments where I wished Krasinski had pushed the envelope more, largely in terms of the film's reliance on jump scares in the first half over the long sequences of creeping tension where it really excelled. The scares felt especially forced, especially since the film used silence so well that pretty much any noise came as a jolt. Another point of annoyance was the lack of originality behind the monster's designs. The monsters looked like a larger, slimier mix of the Demigorgon from Stranger Things and the monster from Cloverfield (which plays into the possible Cloverfield connection that was nearly forced on us). This was more of a personal gripe, but in an era where directors like Guillermo Del Toro can create visually stunning monsters for the same amount of money, it's something of a letdown. Score: 3.5 out of 5 Final Verdict A Quiet Place has it's flaws, but it's short runtime and excellent cast really prevent the film from ever overstaying it's welcome. It's inventive, scary, and leaves you with just enough questions that you'll find yourself thinking about long after the credits have rolled. Score: 76% Oscar Nominations Wishlist: *Best Actor: John Krasinski *Best Supporting Actress: Millicent Simmonds *Best Visual Effects *Best Sound Mixing *Best Production Design Category:Blog posts Category:Reviews Category:2018 Reviews